Despite advances in the reliability and security of electronic content and other data delivery mechanisms, many modern entities still rely on the physical printing and delivery of important documents. The processes involved with the printing, preparation, and delivery of such documents are often inefficient, particularly in situations where large volumes of customized documents must be prepared on a recipient-by-recipient basis. Such processes also raise a number of technical challenges associated with tracing and tracking the physical document as it moves between and amongst multiple entities en route to and from a recipient.
While some document sources allow for a recipient to view and interact electronically with a given document, such electronic interaction raises a number of technical issues, particularly in situations where electronic and physical versions of documents coexist, where harmonization and/or reconciliation of such versions is required, and where the ability to trace or track a given document in its various versions is necessary. The inventor of the invention disclosed herein has identified these and other technical challenges, and developed the solutions described and otherwise referenced herein.